CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Introduction
One of the things that can help IoT with daily activities is the
agriculture section. Currently, the flawless integration with wireless sensors
and IoT in smart agriculture can raise agriculture to a previously unthinkable
[1]. The sales of agricultural products have always been challenging, so real-
time monitoring in the processing, production, and circulation [2]. Supporting
farmers with decision tools and automation technology is a purpose of
application in agriculture. Integrate products, knowledge, and services for
better quality, productivity, and profit expected to increase from 30 million in
2015 to 75 million in 2020 [3]. Smart Garden System is a breakthrough that is
currently popular. At home, there are presently gardens in front and back
yards. With uncertain climate change, a beautiful garden is needed and can
provide coolness to the house. However, daily activities leave many people
without enough time to water their plants. Plants that are not treated will
wither and do not provide benefits. Smart solutions are needed for better crop
maintenance for more efficient water resources, even in adverse weather
conditions. Besides, different plant species require . different amounts of
water, intelligent systems necessary for efficient water utilization and
dynamic plant growth [4]. Because it becomes crucial to combine developing
technology with plantations and carry out smart farms [5], the Smart Garden
System appears. Features allow us to use various IoT applications such as
integrating sensors/ actuators, digital transmissions, low power consumption,
scalability, and WSN security [6]. This system is a process in which
automation water the garden through a humidity sensor in the ground or air.
This system will facilitate with the help of the internet. The humidity sensor is
connected to the watering plant and smartphone so we can monitor soil
moisture. If the air or soil does not have enough water or humidity, the system

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will turn on the watering machine. Soil moisture, rainfall, evaporation are
essential parameters for designing Smart Garden Systems [7], [8]. Some of
the Smart Garden System’s main features are real-time feedback from garden
sensors, park monitoring, application-controlled water systems, and automatic
watering systems. Mobile devices have robust computing, sensing, and
connectivity resources. Tools such as smartphones and tablets can run
applications for various purposes [9]. In this particular case, we would like to
apply the Smart Garden System on mobile devices.
1.2 Project Background
gardening has widely been practiced especially those who lives in
rural area. They do gardening for many reasons including planting their own
food, income generation, decorating their house and even for self-satisfaction
or as a hobby. Although gardening activity in urban area is not widely
practiced as compared to rural area, the introduction of edible garden, urban
farming and community garden in the urban area has encouraged the
community to have their own garden. Plus, with modern issues such as food
security, environmental sustainability and health, it has driven the spread of
urban farming or urban gardening (Nair, 2014).
However, gardening is not an activity that people can simply do in a
short period of time. It requires some skill, knowledge and commitment for
people to do gardening. For example, some of the plants need to be watered
daily and this create a problem for people who are busy with their work
especially those who live in urban area. The senior deputy director of
Landscape and Park Department, Noriah Mat said that the participation by the
community member in urban gardening project getting decreased
to a mere 5% over the years although many have shown their interest.
Although some of the project were successful, some were in doubt about the
sustainability of urban farming and some of them were still finding time when

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to do the urban farming as most of them have a day job (Yeen, 2014).
Living in the modern world these days has shown that technology can
be used to improve human’s daily activity. A lot of innovations were
introduced to help to improve human’s life in all aspects such as
communication, health, home and many more. Home automation system, for
example, has been used to improve human’s life.
Thus, the idea of this project is to embed the technology in gardening
activity to help them to monitor their garden and at the same time improve
their gardening process which is watering the plant. This paper propose a
remote watering system that enable the user to monitor current soil humidity
of their garden and control the watering system via a web server.
1.3 Problem Statement
The main objective of this project is to develop a remote watering system as a
part of home automation system which is a web based garden watering
system that helps the user to monitor and water their plant through the web
server. The objectives of developing the web server can be divided into three
parts which are:
1. To allow user to check the current soil humidity level of their garden.
2. To allow user to turn on and off the watering system to water their garden.
3. Set the watering system into automate mode.
1.3 Objectives
The main objective of this project is to develop a remote watering system as a
part of home automation system which is a web based garden watering
system that helps the user to monitor and water their plant through the web
server. The objectives of developing the web server can be divided into three
parts which are:
1. To allow user to check the current soil humidity level of their garden.
2. To allow user to turn on and off the watering system to water their
garden.

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 3. Set the watering system into automate mode

1.4 Scope
The system is basically designed for people who has a garden but
having some constraint in watering it. The aim here is to develop a system
that enable the user to monitor their garden based on its current soil humidity
and enable them to control watering system remotely through the web server.
For this project, a prototype of the system has been developed which
will be focusing on the ability of the watering system to be accessed via a web
server and it is designed for indoor garden. This system has been developed
using a simple microcontroller which is Arduino and Input-Output (IO)
components which are the soil humidity sensor and water pump. There are
various type of soil moisture sensor available, however for prototyping
purpose, a resistive sensor is used as it readily available in the market.

1.5 Project Significance

1- This project is a part of the home automation system. Since it is a
part of a home automation system, it is assumed that each house has either
Wi-Fi connection or Ethernet connection. Furthermore, since it is developed
for small scale use which is home use, using a simple microcontroller like
Arduino, soil humidity sensor and water pump are relevant in this context.
2-In term of time scope, the student was given 8 months to complete
the project which consist of Final Year Project 1 (FYP1) and Final Year
Project 2(FYP2). Based on the time scope, the time needed to complete this
project will be fit into the timeline. FYP1 will cover processes of planning,
analysis and design and FYP2 will cover the implementation and testing.